It was him lying to them about it initially, telling them the video was from last year, that got him benched. And it appears he's toast:The Cleveland Browns trailed 37-3 in the fourth quarter yesterday, and quarterback Johnny Manziel never got off the bench.

That seems to be a good sign that the Browns have moved on from Manziel. If the 2-10 Browns have no interest in seeing what their 2014 first-round pick has to offer in a game they trailed by five scores, then when? And if they go to him later this season, Sunday's decision to keep him nailed to the bench and waste a week of evaluation seems weirder.

There have been reports and rumors of a power struggle over Manziel, and most of that speculation involves Pettine not wanting the second-year quarterback. And that seems possible after Manziel didn’t play Sunday. No matter how many times Pettine says he’d like to see Manziel succeed in Cleveland, actions speak. Starting Austin Davis Sunday was strange. Keeping Manziel on the sideline in a blowout was even stranger. The Browns punished Manziel for partying on the bye week and lying about it, and now they’re just hurting their football team to make whatever point.

And ............ just like THAT the dysfunctional Browns do a 180 yet again. Sounds to me like Pettine got ordered this morning to play the kid or take a hike. Dumb not to play him, either to see if he stays or to rehabilitate some value in him.

Despite remaining on the bench for the entirety of a 37-3 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, Johnny Manziel has suddenly been reinstated as the Cleveland Browns' starting quarterback, ESPN's Adam Schefter first reported.The next four weeks will be an audition for Manziel's future.

It's pretty much a sign that Pettine's gone at the end of the year anyway. I don't know who would willingly take that job. Or the Redskins job.

The Browns just need to commit to someone at QB, build the team around him, and then once you've got a good team you can start looking for that next QB.

It worked out well for the Rams. Arizona and Houston have been two teams that have been unsuccessful finding QBs, but you don't see them wasting picks on them. As we found out with Arizona, they were a good QB away from being competitive (twice they've done this actually, once with Warner and now with Palmer). Houston feels like if they could get a legit QB in there they would be competitive with that defense. You can even argue the Jets and Bills are in the same situations of having a good team and just needing a legit QB.

When you look, the teams that are perpetual losers are teams that are trying to build QB first rather than build the team and take a good QB that presents himself at the right time. So they end up reaching on a QB who eventually flops.

"When you have the record that we have, if there is not tension in the building, there is a problem," Pettine said. "That is what losing does to you. When you are paid to be successful, when you are paid to win in a bottom-line business and we are not, of course, there is going to be tension."

Actually, Mike that's really bad. At this point you've been losing long enough that everyone needs to be on the same page with the same goals. If you're not, you're not going to do anything but keep losing.

Johnny Manziel's tumultuous run as a quarterback for the Cleveland Browns appears to be over.A report came out that he was spotted in Las Vegas on Saturday night. Even though he was not playing on Sunday due to a concussion, head coach Mike Pettine told the media the report was "disappointing" if true.

According to Peter King of MMQB, the Browns require players in concussion protocol to be seen by a team doctor on Sunday morning. Manziel did not show up to that exam and the team could not reach him.

"[Manziel] didn't show up this morning to team headquarters as required by team rules," King reported on NBC. "The Browns couldn't get a hold of him during the day."

King later added on Twitter that this was likely Manziel's last straw with the Browns.